From some of the posts above, I have come to realize that I am not the only one getting pissy these days, probably because of bad weather and dark all the time.
Get the local license. Ya, many skate and I did too for awhile. An International licence has to be registered to be effective and it takes more hassle to register than to just go get the license. And it has a limited applicability - I think one year. You can get these at MOST insurance agencies in the U.S. and, what the hell, pay a few bucks and now you can drive in Taiwan? WTF. You may be on the road with me and my family. I want more than a piece of paper from AAA.
A total review of ALL questions asked on the exam, along with the answers are posted on here. Even if you want to be a bus driver, the answers are there. Why not just go register the scoot, get the license and smile when you get pulled over while tucking the tea bottle of scotch into the drink holder. Easy Peasey. (Don’t do that)
BTW, seem to recall a couple of years ago that the gov’t mandated an “instant” check on ALL local police officers for their license. I may not recall it all correctly, but as I recall, 60% were not valid.
Can you skate? Yep. For awhile. But sooner or later, if your driving a scoot, there WILL be an accident and somebody is going to ask you for the license. If you don’t have one, your screwed on a skewer. A friend once told me that if you drive a scoot here, you will have an average of 2 accidents per year and 1 BIG accident every 3.
Do yourself and all our families a favor and go do it right, and leave the tea bottle of scotch for when you get home.
Cheers, I am at home.
A third-party insurance? Bollocks. All you need is a vehicle registration.
I just have done something right for once, because in five years, I had one minor accident on a scooter (and mine was not slow, but a very hotted up 2-stroker).
three serious bicycle crashes, OTOH. But then I probably put ten times as many miles in cycling as scootering.
Thanks for that. I drive here but very carefully. I recall when I was taking a taxi from the airport when I first arrived, I SWORE! NEVER would I drive a scoot in Taiwan. Never-the-less, I bought one in Hsinshu and learned to drive in traffic there. Easy. Then I had a g/f in Danshui and drove up #15 to Bali and on to her house. Bottom line is, if your going to drive here, get some rural experience and ALWAYS expect the unexpectible.
A green light means your good to go; a yellow light means you better be careful; a red light means to go faster. NEVER think that they will stop according to the light and always be 24/7 cautionary. When you look away for observing the scenery; well, that will be the last thing you recall. Pay attention and ALWAYS expect that they are TRYING to kill you. They aren’t, but drive that way, at least on a scoot.
I remember, there was a question about what you are not allowed to do while riding a motorcycle, and I had a difficult time deciding whether to check or not check the option “Wearing flip flops is not allowed.”
I think it’s always a good idea to respect the laws of the country you decide to live in, even if the laws are stupid. So yes, get a license. At least you will learn something about how the system works. Can only be helpful when hitting the road.
According to the test, “Always dress well and appropriate” (quote is the best of my recall) So, wear crack ass jeans and look cute. I know I always follow the rules.
And, hey, with the most recent rules, you can’t smoke in a waiting area so you can’t smoke on scoot while at a red light. (certainly a waiting area) A total waste of Dunhill smokes.
Edit: BTW, my Taiwan legal eagle friends tell me that the issue of smoking in a taxi is entirely dependant upon the permission of the driver. He says OK, it’s ok. Much like a motel room. Your rented it and the management controls.
Even if its that you must stone a woman to death for having an affair?
Reasonable laws depend on reasonable people. Reasonable people depend on education. Education depends on knowledge, truth, appreciation and obligation to others and not to one’s self, as long as it is institutionalised education we are talking about, which is what laws depend upon for people to follow them. Let’s not forget to appreciate though that laws are rules made by people for the sake of harmony, or at least they should be. Laws made for any other reason are bogus, and useful only to those who wish to hold unequal power.
I took the car license test about two years ago and the English was really good. It was an audio recording of someone reading the questions along with the text and you had to choose the correct answer. I wasn’t really looking for them but I don’t recall a single mistake. I had some trouble because I was practising using the crappy English test questions on the website I found on Tealit and was really thrown when correct English was used. I remember one of the questions was about how much you get fined for using a cell phone. Luckily my wife tested me on that very question on our way to take the test. I also remember telling her that they weren’t going to ask stupid questions like that so don’t waste my time. 
I actually think if I hadn’t known the answer to that one I probably would have failed because I just made the passing grade on the written test.
When I took the scooter license test a very long time ago they had the crappy English but the motor department people had given us a handbook before we took the test that had all of the questions and answers in it so passing the test was no problem.
You write better than you read.
Now let me make it simple for you.
I said if you want to bitch and moan about illegal driving in Taiwan while driving yourself Illegally then you are a moron. Not you in person but those that do.
Secondly I couldn’t give a monkey’s about what the traffic laws are in England it is of no interest to me whatsoever. Foreigners in Taiwan should follow Taiwan’s laws. This is not colonial times. Taiwan has its own laws now, which have no relevance to the rainy Island in the Atlantic ocean. Unless you have an international license which means you do have a license so the thread has no relevance to you anyway. :discodance:
I could say that i believe the license system in the UK is crap therefore I will not get a license. But if I then complained about others driving illegally ? That would be a dumb individual indeed.
I suggest that foreigners in Taiwan get a license as that would be A) the right thing to do while living in someone elses country B) possibly save you prison time for fine you cannot pay if you had a bad accident. I also offered to give advice to those interested as to where to go to get the license and any other questions they may have in regards to that.
Now whatever your issue is with that apart from trying to have a debate for the sake of a debate 
Anyway it seems 90% of the replies pretty much agree that we should respect their laws regardless if they are up to your personal standards as a westerner.
As for going native on us boys comment. Those kind of comments would of been at home with the British in India 100 years ago. Do you also read the sun newspaper and have a union jack tattoo on your forehead.
I am also not your boy, never want to be and never ever will be. I didn’t know the BNP had a representative out here. :roflmao:
Above just in jest
Well actually if you knew me you would definitely not think me as going native lol :roflmao: I’m about as right wing as is possible to be in Taiwan’s foreign “community”.
All taken from government license test questions:
quote left turn (2) turnaround (3) forked road[/quote]
And the answer is…: None of the above. Its actually reference to a roundabout or traffic circle ahead and the direction of flow around it.
quote no pedestrians (2) stop (3) no any cars[/quote]
This one actually means ‘No Entry’. That’s to all vehicles, not just cars.
Erm…
quote attention (2) danger (3) slow[/quote]
This one of course means traffic lights ahead. To which you could respond either attention or indeed slow as are probably both logically correct.
quote no cars and motorcycles (2) no animal cars (3) no entry[/quote]
This one came up again and this time with the addition of motorcycles. So possibly trucks and buses can go then I suppose.
quote tricycle shop (2) only tricycles (3) no tricycles.[/quote]
This one I like as then I suppose this one…:
[quote] (1) no bicycles (2) no motorcycle (3) no passing[/quote]
…means that tricycles can pass.
Spot the difference here, Taiwan style:
Well by that logic then anyone who has ever managed to make a traffic violation would be struck from the list of those able to make comment. That doesn’t seem fair does it? As I already tried to explain I think that most people when questioned about their problems with Taiwan motorists, actually make reference to the poor driving style and lack of respect for other road users. I can’t understand why someone would needlessly rant about a polite and careful driver who doesn’t posses a license and when nobody knows it. The general poor attitude towards drivers in Taiwan is because of a lack of civil responsibility when in or on a vehicle. I’m sure if there was an additional piece of paper which was pink or black or orange and that was a legal requirement starting tomorrow to have and pay for and use when driving in Taiwan, then it would not make the slightest bit of difference. Well, I suppose the government may receive a little more revenue.
In regards to Taiwan not having any relationship to the traffic laws in England, or them being of little interest to you, you might do a little more research on the subject. It seems you are a keen history buff in reference to the British. In fact the majority of traffic warning and instructional signs that you see on the road that are a number of different shapes and colours are attributed to the work of a few people on a small island in the Atlantic indeed. Furthermore so are tarmac roads, stop lights, indicators and many of the laws of the road. As I said, appreciation of history is sometimes enlightening. Appreciation for the reasoning for them is also quite a benefit at times.
That Taiwan seems to want to implement such modern ideas and technology such as the motor vehicle and its suited environment, and also seems economically dependant upon such an entity would be odd if indeed it didn’t give a rats nostril about where such a place this technology was derived from or how people went about operating and installing it.
I wouldn’t for example offer the keys to a combine harvester to my five year old son and then tell him he should pop down to RT Mart for a pack of butter and some door knobs without first doing a little bit of careful consideration and at the very least read the instruction manual.
Yeah and the Chinese invented gun powder so what? I thought the motor car was invented in the USA anyway, although I could be wrong
So you spotted weaknesses in the Taiwan driving test. SO now does that mean no one should take it? If so then that is really ridiculous. If on another thread as to how to improve the Taiwan driving test it would be very relevant and an interesting post but not on this thread. Off topic totally. But interesting anyway 
As long as traffic police let foreigners off the hook for being foreigners, it’s gonna be hard to get us all to go through the purely symbolic move of getting a Taiwan driver’s license.
So far the only difference in law changes that i’ve seen is you need the TW license to rent a scooter or car here.
we all know that driving here is organized chaos, you have to drive expecting the worst, and that other drivers will never look before entering traffic, for example.
so what’s the point of getting a TW license?
as one friend pointed out – a friend who’d bought a motoche, had all his papers in order and then let them expire when they had to be renewed – getting ‘in’ the system only brings more hassles.
Which reminds me, my IDP needs renewing.
I can’t take a local test as I don’t have an ARC.
Why should one take it if an IDP is suffice?
I drove 500,000 kilometers in Taiwan in bout 15 years. Tally: got in a head on with a blue truck coming around the bend in Taoyuan on my side (me mild headache, no big injuries), got my drivers door smashed in by a big vehicle (hit and run while parked), got my drivers door banged in again by another uknown vehicle (another hit and run while parked), got the right fender based in by my friend driving himself home after a bender, bashed in the front running into a motorcycle running across the road (nobody hurt ), motorcyclist knocked himself off his bike by running into the back-end of my car (nobody hurt) and the list goes on.
But I survived . There is a rhythm to the madness. But there is no question driving in Taiwan is not a piece of cake. You have to be on high alert every second of every minute while on the road there as a driver, a cyclist or a pedestrian.
It cracks me up when a “foreigner” gets high and mighty on this forum.
There is always one every few weeks 
:loco:
I think you are underestimating the gravity of things a little. There are more than one or two inconsistencies with learning how to drive Taiwan style. This is my point. If you have learned on a consistent and practical course already and the Taiwanese government try to ape that system and are willing to accept licenses gained from that system anyway, then is the Taiwan test actually useful? I think that pointing out inconsistencies where present and comparing them to correct answers is actually a good way of determining the relevance of the Taiwan exam system to foreigners who may have already been through a more mature and tested system.
EDIT: Would anyone here appreciate having to take their university teaching degree course once again when in Taiwan, even though they are already qualified to teach English perhaps? I know Taiwan has such courses available.
I get that fenlander is feeling pretty good about getting a local license. Is it a feeling of relief of no longer risking getting caught without it? Because that’s about the only purpose a local license serves. Clearly, holding a Taiwan license does not make one a safer driver.
Back in the day, getting a license in my home state meant something. We took a whole semester of driver’s education in school, with classroom and practical (driving) training. We learned safe driving techniques and the reasons behind them. We saw videos of what happens when you don’t drive safely. We had to pass rigorous written and driving tests to prove that we learned how to drive safely. If you earned a license, that little card actually represented something.
Here, there are some bushibans who teach you how to pass the test. They don’t teach safe driving. You learn how to pass the test and drive a backwards S. BFD. You then get a little card that you show to police when you have to. That is the only value, that I can see, and yes, I believe there is value to that.
None of this distracts from the issue that the roads here are unsafe. Too many people drive dangerously and inconsiderately. Having a Taiwan license does not have any correlation with regard for traffic laws.
fenlander, congratulations on getting your local license. You must be able to rest easier knowing you can whip out that card when the cops pull you over to check your papers. ('cause God knows they won’t pull you over for a moving violation like running a red light, failure to yield or driving on a shoulder.)
A license in Taiwan simply means that you are now released into the “wild” to really learn about what its really like out there.
I know some people who have a TW license who will NOT drive under any circumstance.
Yes, like my wife. That was $12,000NT well spent. 
:fume:
Ok here’s my deal since you guys are so gung-ho on helping an organization that really doesn’t want your help. You call Ms. Lin and see if she will actually allow you to help her fix the test. This is what she will do in my opinion. If she still has that job, she will thank you for your interest and then find some means where you can’t help her. Besides that, the person who got the response got the normal govt response here which is to call someone else! In cartoons from my childhood they would refer to someone like that as a sucker. The questions have been messed up since I came here 9.5 years ago. If they haven’t fixed them within 9.5 years, do you actually, really think they will fix them ever?
You should have a license. Whether you have one or not, doesn’t make you a good or bad driver. That one is on you.
As for as vehicle registration and insurance, in order to get vehicle registration you have to buy insurance first. This is where fenlander and the rest of you are getting confused.
Calling me BNP, fenlander?!?! BNP are a bunch of left wing retards who are gaining popularity in your homeland, not mine.